


Stranger than Fiction

by whimsicality



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Castle
Genre: F/F, Gen, Hints at Castle/Beckett, Humor, Kittens, No comics because I actually like the characters, demon goo, fluffy fuffy, old fic, post season seven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-27
Updated: 2013-06-09
Packaged: 2017-12-13 03:23:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/819388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsicality/pseuds/whimsicality
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castle always had the strangest contacts, but Kate just knew that these two girls would be the strangest of all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

### 

When Richard Met Buffy

"Aren't you that author guy?" the blonde asked him curiously as she casually wiped blood off his forehead, cleaning the shallow wound beneath and applying a bandage with clinical efficiency.

"That's me, Richard Castle, master of mystery," Castle replied, a trifle unsteadily, but giving her his best attempt at a suave smile.

She snorted delicately, pulling away from him and propping her hands on her hips, hips that he could not help but notice were slender but perfectly curved, as well as fashionably clad. "Care to unravel the mystery of why a successful author was playing poker with a bunch of demons?"

He shrugged, heart rate beginning to slow and his breath no longer coming in harsh pants. "You haven't lived until you've played kitten poker," he stated flippantly, before sighing as she arched one perfectly shaped and utterly disbelieving eyebrow. Why was it always beautiful women who saw right through him?

"I was doing research for a story a few years back when I stumbled across the supernatural world. I make a point to keep up my contacts, and a few games of poker -- where I make sure to lose just enough -- keeps me from losing any important body parts."

She nodded, green eyes judging him on some internal meter in a way that reminded him of Kate. "Well, Mr. Castle, I suggest you be more careful with your contacts."

He nodded fervently, a vivid flash of a bloodied claw reaching for his face sending involuntary shivers down his spine. If this tiny little blonde hadn't shown up with her ridiculously sharp sword, there would be one less egotistical author haunting New York, and Alexis would never have seen her father again.

That thought chilled him in a way that the violence had not and he turned grateful eyes on the woman in front of him. "Thank you. For saving my life."

She gave him a genuine smile. "That's what I do, master of slayage is me."

He winced at the grammar, but returned the smile, his grin widening when an equally stunning brunette appeared behind her and wrapped an arm around the blonde's waist, dropping a kiss on her neck. "You okay, B? I got caught up with the vamp bodyguards in the alley."

"Peachy with a side of keen. Faith meet Richard Castle, author. Mr. Castle meet Faith, the other master of slayage."

The brunette grinned at him cheekily, sex and something else smoldering in her large, dark eyes. "You can call me Mistress."

"I would be happy too, Mistress," he replied, cracking an imaginary whip and winking at her, then cursing under his breath as his bruised shoulder protested the motion.

Faith laughed, a low sound that tickled all the right places, and Castle forgot his pain for a moment. The blonde shook her head, an amused grin twitching her lips as she pulled a business card out of her impossibly tight pants. "My name's Buffy Summers, Mr. Castle, we just might be in touch. I have a feeling that some of your contacts could be useful to us."

He took the card, staring bemusedly down at the simple silver lettering -- _ISC - New York Branch_ \-- with a phone number underneath.

"And if you ever need any help, or come across anything unusual, give us a call."

"What if I'm just looking for some beautiful, and apparently lethal, company?" he couldn't help but ask, his curiosity at just how the blonde had managed to subdue and slaughter seven demons breaking through his lingering fear. His fingers were already twitching for his keyboard; he never could resist stories of women kicking ass. It was why Beckett so appealed to him, well that, and her underlying vulnerability. He wondered what vulnerabilities these two had.

"Then pay for it by the hour like everyone else," the brunette said dryly, her hands wandering down Buffy's thighs in a way that sped Castle's heart rate up again, although for a much better reason than a near death experience.

"I'll do that," he muttered distractedly, mouth dry. If he didn't already have inspiration, inspiration he had no intention of letting go of anytime soon (if ever), he had a feeling that these two would have found themselves a stalker, laptop in hand.

Buffy picked up her sword from where it had been leaning against the wall and he forcibly reminded himself that she, and most likely Faith as well, could remove his hands without even blinking. Then he had to fight a smile at what Beckett would say to that thought, most likely something along the lines of 'good riddance'.

Struggling to his feet, he managed a slight bow. "It was lovely to meet you two ladies, despite, or maybe because of, the circumstances, and I do hope we meet again."

Faith laughed. "I think we should keep him around, B. He's much more entertaining than that last crop of Watcher-wannabes the G-man sent us."

The blonde eyed him appraisingly before cursing as something beeped. "We have to go, that's the emergency line." Sliding the sword into a back sheath Castle hadn't even noticed, she turned to go, flashing him a smile over her shoulder. "It was nice to meet you too, Ricky, and I'm sure we'll meet again."

Then she was gone, and so was the brunette after blowing him a kiss. Castle rocked back on his heels, staring around the room filled with demon body parts and playing cards before realizing that he probably shouldn't stick around, especially without the gorgeous bodyguards. He was halfway to the door when a mewling sound stopped him in his tracks.

Turning around, he walked back and grabbed the box of kittens off the table before finally leaving, a grin still splitting his face at how unexpected, and amazing, his night had turned out to be. And Alexis had been bugging him for a pet, so really it was a win-win all around. Except for maybe the demons he thought with a grimace as he flagged down a cab. It definitely hadn't been a good night for them.


	2. Chapter 2

### 

Down the Rabbit Hole

Beckett stared at the two gorgeous women who had walked into the station five minutes ago. They had already managed to pull every single male officer, not to mention a few female ones, in the building from what they were supposed to be doing. She was sure that somehow this had something to do with Castle. It always did these days.

The women moved in perfect sync with each other, yet appeared to be polar opposites. One was your typical Californian blonde, tanned and gorgeous with sparkling green eyes, a perfectly toned body, and dressed in clothes Beckett knew cost more than anything she'd ever worn, except for maybe that dress Castle had loaned her.

The other was dark and sultry: full pouting lips, tousled dark hair, bedroom eyes. Even if she hadn't been dressed in leather, she would have radiated sex and danger. Beckett rolled her eyes as Esposito and Ryan stumbled over themselves to offer the two women coffee. The dark haired one said something that made Ryan blush and the blonde laughed, a warm sound that made you think of sunshine and beaches. "Play nice with the poor police officers, Faith."

The brunette, apparently named Faith, just smirked. "Now what would be the fun in that, B?" Then she leaned forward and whispered something in Esposito's ear that, to Beckett's amusement, made the usually composed man cough slightly, as close to a blush as she had ever seen him.

Castle walked in the front door before she could make the decision to break up the flirt fest, eyes widening with pleased surprise as he caught sight of the women, and Beckett felt a flash of irritation, along with some other emotions she wasn't comfortable identifying.

"Ricky!" the blonde called, spinning around and throwing her arms around him before he even had a chance to speak. Beckett frowned, wondering how she had known he was there, before feeling her mouth fall open slightly when Faith pulled Castle away from the blonde and planted one right on his lips.

The blonde giggled and Castle flushed. "Buffy finally agree to share?" he managed to ask, retaining only a portion of his usual charm as Beckett almost choked on learning the girl's name.

"Only in your dreams, Ricky," Buffy said sweetly, pulling Faith away from him and wrapping her arms around the other woman's waist.

Beckett rolled her eyes again and finally decided to interrupt before she gave herself a headache, approaching the gathering with an expression that sent most of the officers scattering and crossing her arms in front of her as she shot her best disparaging look at Castle. "This is a police station, Castle, not your personal office. You're not supposed to bring friends here."

The two women turned, eyeing her with strangely clinical detachment before Faith arched one eyebrow. "She's definitely a babe, Ricky, but I think you've got your work cut out for you."

Buffy nodded, before fixing Beckett with a glare that she found startling intimidating. "I know he's a pain in the ass-"

"Hey!" Castle protested, but Buffy just shushed him before turning her gaze back to Beckett.

"Like I said, pain in the ass, but he's also a genuinely good guy, so don't even think about hurting him," the blonde finished, voice firm, and with a new aura of danger that more than matched Faith's.

Beckett gaped, aware by the expressions on Ryan and Esposito's faces that she looked ridiculous, but unable to help herself. Had she really just been threatened with not hurting Castle? The womanizing flirt who had become her personal shadow for the past two years? It just did not compute.

Castle surprised her by speaking up before the moment could become any more awkward. "They're actually here to help with the case, Beckett, not just because they make fantastic eye candy."

"Though we do that too," Faith stated cockily with a smirk at Ryan and Esposito, who cracked identical grins and nodded.

Beckett just blinked, trying to reconcile the facts of their current case -- a string of particularly brutal murders involving the removal of some rather unusual body parts -- with the two beautiful young women who had invaded her police station. She barely resisted the urge to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming, knowing that Ryan, Esposito, and especially Castle, would never let her live it down.

"Alright then," she stated as dryly as she could manage before gesturing toward the bulletin board covered in pictures, notes, and string. "Let's get to it before anyone else ends up dead." Turning sharply on her heel, she lead the way back through the desk, once more convinced that her life had simply not been this strange before Castle had invaded it.

Unfortunately she couldn't seem to convince herself that that fact actually bothered her.


	3. Chapter 3

### 

Does Not Compute

Faith was leaning against a wall, chatting about something with Esposito, while the blonde squatted next to the body, careful to keep from touching it as she examined the hole in his lower abdomen with a disturbingly experienced gaze.

"Lanie?" Beckett asked, still not comfortable with the fact that the two women had managed to produce documentation allowing them to assist with any case they so chose. Especially since the documentation hadn't said _why_ they were allowed to do so, nor who they really were. Were they both spooks like that one strange man Castle had introduced her to? That didn't seem to fit, but neither did any of the other explanations she'd come up with in the past six hours.

"The wound is clean and very precise; the gall bladder was removed with a minimum of damage to the other organs. Whoever did this knew what they were doing," her friend stated, looking up at Beckett from the other side of the corpse. "Although why anyone would want a gall bladder is beyond me," she added dryly.

"It's too small to store something, not really worth anything on the black organ market," Castle stated, his tone speculative, and Beckett couldn't hide a faint smile as his voice took on the tone that meant he was trying to concoct a particularly lurid explanation.

The blonde stood up in one graceful move that, frankly, made Kate a little envious. "I can think of a few reasons, none of them good," she stated firmly, eyes brushing past Beckett and Castle before settling on her partner, who straightened and walked toward her.

"Are we talking Willow-wannabes or something more our territory?" Faith asked Buffy, the reference mystifying Beckett and clearly piquing Castle's interest.

"I'm thinking Column B," the blonde replied with a frown, pulling a cell phone out of a pocket that Beckett hadn't realized such tight pants could hold. "I sent the list to Dawn last night; hopefully she'll have a name for us."

"Who are you sending case details to?" Beckett asked sharply, her need to know what the hell they were talking about temporarily overwhelmed by her frustration with the mystery surrounding them.

"Someone else with the same documentation we have," Buffy replied calmly as she held down one of the keys on the phone and pressed it to her ear. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to see what she found out." Then she walked out of the room and into the hall, leaving Beckett grinding her teeth as the brunette smirked at her from beneath lowered eyelids.

Ignoring her, Beckett turned to her own people. "Come on people, let's get the evidence back to the station and get to work. Did you see any prints or fibers on the body, Lanie?"

The coroner shook her head. "No, but there were a few traces of a liquid I need to test back at the lab. I'll let you know once I have something concrete."

Beckett nodded and turned to stare at Castle, her next words coming out more sarcastic then she intended. "Any theories?"

"Nothing you'd believe," he replied with a grin, a hint of a shadow in his eyes that she didn't see very often, and that worried her quite a bit more than she liked. Especially since only part of her worry was for the case, and the rest was for the man who aggravated and challenged her by turns.

Two men came into the room to help Lanie load up the body and Buffy followed, her perfect white teeth worrying her bottom lip as she tapped her cell phone against her hip. "Let's go, Faith."

"What did you find out?" Beckett asked, taking a step forward and ignoring the way the brunette curved herself into the blonde's back as she felt a surge of hope that maybe the next call she got wouldn't be because they'd found a fifth body.

The blonde studied her for a moment before shaking her head. "Nothing for this case yet, but we have another situation to handle. We'll meet you back at the station when we're done."

The woman was lying. There were no obvious signs, the blonde was certainly better at it than Castle, but Beckett knew that she wasn't telling the truth. Knew that whatever this Dawn person had told her, _was_ about this case, and that for whatever reason Buffy didn't want the cops interfering. That pissed her off, a lot.

"Catch you later, Ricky," Faith drawled as she followed Buffy out of the room, pausing in the doorway long enough to pierce Beckett with a glare just as intimidating as the one the blonde had given her at the station. "And don't even think of sending someone to follow us."

Then they were gone and Kate was left grinding her teeth, again. It seemed that she had finally found someone, or some ones, who irritated her more than Castle. Spinning, she fixed the man in question with her own glare. "I want answers, Castle."

"I know," he said, voice unusually soft as he gave her a smile decidedly lacking in flirtatiousness. "But I wasn't kidding when I said you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me," she stated firmly, no longer willing to stay in the dark, not when there were people being murdered on her watch.

"Well, to start with, I'm pretty sure that they just left to kill a demon, or possibly demons," he responded with a half-smile, although the lack of twinkle in his blue eyes convinced her that he believed what he was saying.

"What?"


	4. Chapter 4

### 

Welcome to Wonderland

Esposito and Ryan were working all the angles they had at the station, and Lanie still hadn't gotten back to her about the strange liquid on the body, so Beckett didn't protest too much when Castle directed her to his apartment and poured her a drink with a little extra in it that she really shouldn't have on duty.

"So, you are delusional you know? All the fame going to your head?"

He sat down in an armchair across from hers, cradling a glass that had decidedly more extra in it than her's did, and tapped his finger against his lips in a thoughtful way. "Well the fame has most certainly gone to my head, and some might argue that I'm occasionally delusional, but in this particular instance I'm not crazy. And I am telling the truth."

She took a long swallow of her drink and shot him a disbelieving look. She might have learned to trust Castle, and come to the grudging realization that he frequently had random, esoteric knowledge that came in handy on their cases. But this was too much.

Castle shrugged, grinning with surprising gentleness at her. "I told you that you wouldn't believe me."

She gave him her best 'no shit' look before snapping her head toward the door when a knock sounded. What was it now? A priest for an exorcism? Or were they not that kind of demons?

Castle shook his head as he stood and approached the front door, still not quite sure _why_ he had told Beckett the truth, and hoping that Buffy and Faith didn't eviscerate him for it. Assuming Kate didn't have him locked up for the sake of his sanity (a long lost cause, truth be told).

"Speak of the devil!" he exclaimed with a grin that was only partially forced as he swung the door open to reveal the two women in question. "Welcome to my humble abode."

"We called the station and they said you'd be here," Buffy said, smiling cheerfully at him as they walked toward the living room. Then her eyes drifted over to Beckett, who was staring at them bemusedly, and her smile faded. Tilting her head in his direction, she arched an eyebrow. "I take it you told her?" He sighed and nodded and she huffed, before stating confidently. "And she didn't believe you."

"Can you blame her?" he asked, making a face.

She shook her head and chuckled darkly. "No I can't, so it's a good thing Faith likes souvenirs."

He stared at her quizzically, wondering what on Earth that meant, and she gestured to the brunette. Faith proceeded to hold up a brown bag that was soaked in something yellow and viscous.

"Oooh what is it?" he asked excitedly, approaching the bag, but not touching it, even though his hands twitched with the urge. "Is it a head? Oh please let it be a head."

"Man after my own heart," Faith stated with a grin as she pulled down the top of the bag to reveal a slimy, yellow head, complete with blue cranial ridges and tusk-like teeth.

The sudden tinkle of broken glass reminded Castle that they weren't alone, and he tore his attention away from the grotesque souvenir to see Beckett staring at them, one hand over her mouth and one on her gun, the glass shattered on the floor at her feet.

Buffy frowned at the gun before leaning against the kitchen counter, obviously doing her best to appear non-threatening. "Well, Detective Beckett, looks like you get to find out who we are and what we do after all."

Kate blinked, staring fiercely at the head for a long moment before sinking back into the couch and closing her eyes. "This is all your fault, Castle. My life was never this weird before you started following me around."

"But isn't it more fun now?" he asked irrepressibly, watching with fascination as Faith dumped the head into his kitchen sink before walking around the counter and leaning into Buffy, wrapping her arm around the blonde's waist and nibbling on her neck.

"You know, we haven't taken care of the H and H's yet," the brunette murmured suggestively, and despite not knowing what she meant, Castle found himself dying to see them take care of those mysterious H's.

"Later," Buffy promised, giving Faith a lingering kiss before pulling away and plopping down on the plush chair Castle had vacated, carefully skirting the broken glass on the floor. Faith pouted, but seated herself on an arm of the chair, winding an arm around the other woman's shoulders and leaving Castle to sit on the couch next to Beckett after picking up the largest shards and settling a napkin over the rest.

Kate finally opened her eyes again, shooting him a look he couldn't quite read, before settling her gaze on the two women across from them. "I don't want to know everything, but I need to know enough to understand this case."

Buffy nodded, pink lips curving into a smile. "Well it starts like this; the world is older than we know."

Faith snorted. "You really gonna start there, B?"

The blonde rolled her eyes and put a finger to the other girl's lips, then snatched it away when Faith's tongue snaked out to lick it.

Castle choked, his fascination with their story replaced by another kind of fascination entirely, and Kate smacked his arm, gently. "Stop drooling. I'm not sure I want to hear this, but I need to, so hush."

He pouted at her and Buffy giggled. "It's like us before that night in the club."

"The whole 'unspoken tension' thing you two have going on," Faith said dryly, "Is much more fun once you're actually gettin' some."

It was Kate's turn to choke and she flushed slightly, making the other two women grin and Castle's lips twitch suspiciously although his eyes were intent on Kate's face. "Can we get back to the case now and talk about our _lack_ of tension later?"

"Not just a river in Egypt," the blonde sing-songed, then chuckled at the detective's glare. "Okay then, so the world is older than we know..."


	5. Chapter 5

### 

Effect Trumps Truth

"Well, it certainly explains a lot about New York," Beckett finally stated with dry amusement, and Castle grinned. That was one of the things he loved about Kate, her ability to roll with the punches and come up swinging every time.

"That it does," he said cheerfully, practically bouncing in his seat. "I hadn't heard the whole spiel before, it's fascinating!"

Buffy shot him a quelling look, "You cannot write a book about this, Ricky."

A sudden noise from behind them prevented him from answering, and he turned to see his daughter standing in the kitchen, wearing her pajamas, and staring at the sink in horrified fascination. "Um, dad? Why is there a head in our sink?"

Castle leapt to his feet and hurried to the kitchen, guiding her towards the living room. He seated her on the couch between him and Beckett, then wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Was…was that a demon, dad?" she asked hesitantly, staring up at him with those big blue eyes he could never resist.

"You told her?" Beckett asked in shock and he nodded without looking away from Alexis, trying to judge how okay she was.

"I tell her everything." He noted the expression on Faith's face when he said that and quickly amended that statement, "Well, not _everything_."

"Thank god," Alexis said affectionately, rolling her eyes before resting her head on his shoulder and staring at Buffy. "You're the one who saved his life?" The blonde nodded and he felt his daughter snuggle more deeply into his side, before saying softly, and sincerely, "Thank you."

"When was your life in danger Castle?" Beckett asked, her voice light, but with an undercurrent of tension he couldn't ignore, and that pleased him more than he'd like to admit.

"He made the mistake of playing poker with the wrong demons. One of them got hungry for something bigger than a kitten and luckily for him, Faith and I happened to be patrolling in the area," Buffy answered for him, green eyes twinkling.

"You were playing poker with demons?" "You didn't tell me they ate the kittens, dad!"

Castle's gaze ping-ponged between his partner and his daughter before settling on his lap. "Yes, I did. I know it was stupid, and that's why I brought home Demon for you Alexis."

"You brought her home a demon?" Beckett exclaimed, smacking his arm again, less gently this time.

"No, Kate, he brought me home a kitten. We just named it Demon," Alexis said with a giggle, gesturing to a small puff of white with red markings that was curled up in a basket in the corner.

"How appropriate," Buffy stated with a laugh, pulling some of the attention off of Castle. "What'd you do with the rest of them?"

He shrugged, grinning roguishly. "The cab driver who picked me up that night wanted to spoil his granddaughters; apparently he has quite a few of them."

"You meet the strangest people," Beckett muttered under her breath, making everyone else laugh.

"I bet Ricky does, but I think we should get the medal for the strangest," Faith said with a wink, her fingers lazily toying with Buffy's hair.

Castle snorted and Alexis nodded, stating excitedly, "Definitely the coolest. "

"I don't know," Kate interjected, a smile crossing her face for the first time since he had said the word Demon. "Lady Irena was pretty strange, and I know Castle here thought she was 'cool'."

"Lady Irena huh? Do tell us more Detective," Faith said, voice low and sultry as she tossed Castle a wink.

He coughed and covered Alexis's ears, faint embarrassment more than balanced out by his relief over how well Beckett was reacting. This could have been the straw that broke the camel's back, but if she could accept the supernatural, well, it gave him hope for other things.

"Lady Irena was a dominatrix who seemed to have a thing for 'Ricky' here," Kate answered with a grin, "And he certainly didn't seem to mind following orders when she was around."

"I thought I was the only one you called mistress," Faith purred, fluttering her eyelashes at him and making Beckett arch an amused and questioning eyebrow in his direction.

"I think it's best if I don't answer that," Castle said after a moment, and Buffy chuckled.

"Smart man."

Castle grinned cockily in response, dropping his hands from Alexis's ears and leaning back into the couch. "I've still got it, despite all the self-inflicted brain damage."

"We might need to try some non-self-inflicted brain damage then," Buffy stated with a wry twist of her lips, one of her hand's reaching up to capture Faith's and bringing it down to her lap where she started tracing idle circles the other girl's palm.

The other two women laughed, as did Alexis, making Castle pout again. Until the dulcet sounds of his mother's voice reached his ears from outside the front door and then he outright groaned, burying his head in his hands as the laughter around him continued. "Now I'm doomed."


End file.
